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The iPhone X goes on sale on Friday morning, with queues expected outside Apple Stores as consumers fight to get hold of the redesigned flagship.
Following on from the iPhone 8 launch in September, the X is a major design shift – the first all-screen fronted iPhone and also the first to use facial recognition.
The dramatic change comes at a price though – starting at £999 it is the most expensive iPhone ever, so why should you consider buying it?
In recognition of a growing trend among smartphones, the iPhone X does away with its bezels and is almost entirely screen on its face.
The Home button has been sacrificed as part of this change, and new swipe gestures are now in place for navigation that used to be done via that button.
The display is not only bigger, but it’s brighter too – the first OLED screen on an iPhone reproduces colours more accurately and has better brightness.
The other flagship feature of the X is the introduction of FaceID.
The facial recognition technology is used to unlock the phone as the new central security protocol on the device. Users will also show their face to the TrueDepth camera and array of sensors when authenticating transactions for Apple Pay.
It completely replaces the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, and its success and accuracy are likely to be key components in the success or failure of the X once it launches.
The extensive amount of new technology built into and around the front-facing camera means one of the iPhone’s best existing features – Portrait photography – now works with your selfies.
The Portrait Lighting features first seen in the iPhone 8, which use AI to apply different light settings to photos, are also on offer here.
Flip the iPhone X over and the dual rear cameras that have become a signature of the Plus versions of the phone can now also be found here.
Not only that, but a new telephoto lens and colour filter promises better low-light photography performance, and both lenses come with optical image stabilisation for the first time, meaning less blurry photos.
On the lighter side, the front-facing TrueDepth camera’s ability to see facial movement means users can now animate emoji with their own face.
Apple has so far introduced 12 Animoji for users to play with and send to friends, with more likely to come in the future.
Apple calls the chip in the iPhone X the “most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone”, with the artificial intelligence introduced able to help the phone process four times faster than Apple’s previous chip set.
It can also improve battery life by up to two hours compared with the iPhone 7, and enables bigger and better augmented reality experiences on the device.
Having already removed the headphone jack, Apple is now working on removing the charging cable too by going wireless for the first time this year.
The iPhone 8 also supports the new standard, and Apple is working on a new charging pad called AirPower that will enable users to charge their phone, Apple Watch and AirPods in one go once it launches next year.
